An Introvert With An Extrovert Button!

Weekly Reading: Nora Roberts

Daring to Dream

For the past couple of months I have been reading 3 Nora Roberts books- the Dream Trilogy. The three books are Daring to Dream, Holding the Dream, and Finding the Dream. I don’t typically read romance books and these three books were the only Nora Roberts books I have ever read.

The first book is 20 years old and I am pretty sure the series hit some major romance novel tropes. Here are the ones even I can identify:

Lovers are suppose to be having a fling

Lovers were friends for years and are now lovers

Lovers are complete opposites

One lover is an orphan

Millionaire playboys, southern gentlemen, and reformed bad boys

Neglected wives who are awakened after the divorce

Misunderstood love interest

Three women who need the love of the right man and babies to be complete

I can put aside a lot of my annoyances given that this is what people come to these books for. The nature of romance is that it will typically revolve around that final trope. I just hope that things have been modernized in the 20 years that followed. I know things have begun to bring in more same sex relationships, but I hope the dynamics of the relationships have changed.

I could forgive the formulaic nature of the series. It isn’t deep literature, it’s a romance series. The romance seems solid and the books were easy to read. What pissed me off had to do with the way Roberts writes more than anything. It pissed off the writer in me. She wrote in first person, but changes point of view in the middle of things. You are reading from one characters point of view and then suddenly, a completely different character is talking. I am not opposed to multiple narrators, but I prefer to have some warning.

It annoyed me so much I actually had to write a review about it for the final book and I have to mention it here.

Any romance readers out there? Have things gotten better or are they still using the same tropes in the same way?

I read Harlequin Historicals. There are some things I ignore but enjoy a quick read. I used to have a subscription to all of their genres, back when it was just 8 sweet little books, the presents, and the golden. My cousin and I traded back and forth. It was great. But, that being said, I read many different books. Sometimes it is good to just have a change.